You want to search a single file, or all files in a project, for some matching text.

Use the built-in Eclipse Search dialog. The Search menu contains multiple items (Search→ Search, Search→ File, Search→ Help, and Search→ Java), but all of them open the same dialog.

As you’d expect of a good IDE, Eclipse has a lot of built-in search support. However, searching in Eclipse is not accomplished via the standard Edit→ Find/Replace operation, which enables you to search the current file. Instead, searching displays all matches in the Search view so that you can select the one or ones you want to jump to. In addition, the items in the Search menu enable you to search across all files in workspaces, through the help system, all plug-ins, and more. Wildcards (* and ?) work as well.

The Search dialog appears in Figure 4-7; note the four tabs there:

Figure 4-7. The Search dialog

For example, take a look at the File Search tab, which enables you to search across multiple files for ...